Mid-20th Century Drawings

Italian painting from 20th century. Oil painting on canvas depicting an impressionist seascape of particular pictorial quality and pleasant decor. Wooden frame with fabric passe-part...

Italian painting dated 1945. Work oil on masonite depicting a particular view with characters Celebration of Spring of excellent pictorial quality. Nice size framework of pleasant de...

Whimsical framed black and white drawing by Lenard Kester, tilted "Dancing Clowns". Autographed and signed by artist on May 16, 1955: "...

Offered here for your consideration is a vintage original Earl MacPherson pastel painting of a pin-up girl. Depicting a blond, smiling, nude pin-up girl dressed only with two larg...

Three drawings of boxers by Tony Sisti. Sisti was a master draftsman. With just a few lines he captures the moment. Sisti was a professional boxer and an accomplished artist. He was able to see the subject from the view point of the boxer and the artist. The seated boxers...

Pointillist color drawing by Dora Maar. Authenticity stamp of the auction that took place in 1998 in Paris. Drawing on cream white paper. 20th Century, undated. Framed an...

One of a series of drawings Bernard Boutet de Monvel made circa 1922 while participating in the Croisière Citroën, an expedition comprising scientists and artists who traversed the S...

Charles Edouard oil on wood landscape, circa 1931. In original condition, with minor wear consistent with age and use.  

By artist Myrna Nobile San Diego CA. Nude art drawing on paper dated 3/5/65 and signed. Measures: 17.5 x 24 Preowned unrestored vintage condition. Refer to images provided.

One of a series of drawings Bernard Boutet de Monvel made circa 1922 while participating in the Croisière Citroën, an expedition comprising scientists and artists who traversed the S...

Illustration painting attributed to Al Corn, unsigned, drawn for Mans World Magazine.

Charcoal Drawing Inspired by the Mano dell Davide, Venice.Overall, charcoal drawing is a dynamic and expressive medium that offers artists a wide range of creative possibilities. It'...

An original Maison Jansen pencil drawing depicting an architectural detail "Rosace de Plafond Louis XIV" page 136 Stamped: Jansen, 9 Rue Royale Paris 8e.

Emil Betzler German Expressionist painting 'Legend', 1962 ('Sage') Pen and brush ink drawing on velin paper.  Signed and dated by the artist. Shown in 'Emil Betzler' - monograph...

Alfred Owles (1894-1978) "The Long Wait" original watercolor, circa 1970s Fine watercolor of two cowboys waiting for the stagecoach in an American West...

Emlen Etting returned again and again to the theme of Icarus Falling, in part because it gave him an opportunity to depict the nude male in motion. This large drawing served as a stu...

Full of drama and a tour de force of figurative drawing heavily influenced by Renaissance masters, this piece was made by Dunbar Beck in preparation for a large mural painting...

This dramatic drawing of St. George and the dragon was executed in 1954 by Gaston Goor, who was famous for illustrating a number of books by Roger Peyrefitte and others in France. Go...

This virtuosic pen-and-ink drawing shows several gods cavorting with wild-maned horses in an Art Deco galaxy. All the figures are perfectly stylized as if parading across a classical...

An interesting figurative colored chalks, charcoal drawing by Gisbert Palmie. A noted "anti-modernist" whose works were collected by leading Nazis inclu...

Original artwork by the master. It is in as-found poor condition. It will be shipped in a tube without glass or framing. Pencil signed with information on backing paper, crayon numb...

A classic example of stylized Art Deco drawing with attenuated figures, this depiction of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was created by Glidden Parker, who is most famous for his...

Arthur Reiwald drawing

A wonderful Robert Freiman watercolor, from 1956, entitled " Third Avenue at 57th Street". Robert J Freiman (b. 1917 - d. 1991), deaf from birth, was born in New York City and attended the Lexington School for the Deaf. He studied art at the National Academy of Design, Pratt Institute, the Art Students League, the Parsons School of Design, and, in Paris, at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Freiman’s spectrum of styles evolved considerably over the course of his long career, ranging from early portraiture and realistic landscape to mixed-media works using watercolor, acrylic, and pen. He was a regular exhibitor at the Sidewalk Art...

Modernist nude study of the female figure by an anonymous artist, circa early 20th century. Loose, expressive strokes with emphatic shading. Drawn in charcoal on paper. We have two r...

Burton Stanley Hasen (New York City, 1921 - 2007) abstract expressionist mixed media (watercolor and ink) on paper. A New York native, Hasen relocated to Paris to study art at the Ac...

Drawing on paper by Paul Wonner and William T. Brown. Titled 'Farewell to Belvedere'. Drawing is not framed. Paul John Wonner (April 24, 1920 – April 23, 2008) was an American artis...

Oil painting on board from 20th century. French painting signed lower right, for antique dealers and collectors. Work depicting a mountain landscape of great charm and good pictorial...

Italian Painting from the 1960s: Accademia di Belle Arti, Venezia.Overall, charcoal drawing is a dynamic and expressive medium that offers artists a wide range of creative possibilit...

Outstanding French Noble portrait with carved frame, graphite drawing, ff. XIX, pp. XX Technical data Drawing on paper Title of the work: Untitled Author: anonymous Portrait paintin...

An American Art Deco 'fashion plate', in period and in a Winold Reiss style. Reiss, was an artist and designer of many styles, and this unsigned watercolor is in the style of his Emp...

Landscape Drawing, Black Marker Boat and Harbor Scene, France 1966. This vintage black felt-tip pen drawing from 1966 captures a scene of the Cape Antibes, located on the French Riv...

This large and important drawing was made by Eduardo Benito, the pioneering artist who helped to establish the impossibly sophisticated images of modern...

Drawing diptyque composed by two portraits representing a "Seated man" and a "Lying man", charcoal and chalk drawing. France, 1960s

Best known for his WPA and World's Fair murals, this drawing is a rare example of Dunbar Beck's foray into Surrealism. His depiction of a nude male facing a Totem pole with one arm o...

An original Maison Jansen pencil drawing on velum, depicting an architectural detail "Rosace de Plafond" page 135 Stamped: Jansen, 9 Rue Royale Paris 8e

An interesting gouache on paper by Robert Freiman, signed and dated 1961. Robert J Freiman (b. 1917 - d. 1991), deaf from birth, was born in New York City and attended the Lexington School for the Deaf. He studied art at the National Academy of Design, Pratt Institute, the Art Students League, the Parsons School of Design, and, in Paris, at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Freiman’s spectrum of styles evolved considerably over the course of his long career, ranging from early portraiture and realistic landscape to mixed-media works using watercolor, acrylic, and pen. He was a regular exhibitor at the Sidewalk Art...

Gouache on paper costume design for Annabella, for the John Ford play: "Tis a Pity She's a Whore" by Eugene Berman signed with the cypher (E.B.), dated 1942 and annotated. Pencil ske...

A mild, pensive drawing nude of a woman leaning against a wall. Jerry O'Day is also known as Geraldine Heib. Born in Oakland, CA on June 17, 1912. Geraldine Heib assumed the name Jerry O'Day at an early age. She grew up in Washington and studied in Seattle at the Cornish School of Fine Arts. Upon moving to the San Francisco Bay area in 1938, she further studied with Bufano as a muralist for two years. She wed sculptor David Lemon...

White Bunny Drawing by Oleg Cassini for Playboy October 1979, Signed. Illustration of a woman wearing a white body suit, choker, and hat. Signed by Oleg Cassini. Notice the body suit is in the shape of the head of a bunny with clever use of the 'whiskers'. Approximate Measurements: Length: 11" Width: 14" Property from the Collection of Steven Rosengard, Chicago, Illinois This original drawing was commissioned by Playboy and included in the October 1979 issue of Playboy Magazine (pages 225-227) in a feature that included works from designers such as Bill Blass, Oleg Cassini, Edith Head, Fernando Sanchez, and Monika Tilley, among others, who create their versions of the Playboy bunny costume. Candace Collins can be seen modeling some of the designs in the feature. Oleg Cassini is an icon of twentieth-century fashion. Though born to Russian aristocracy and raised in Italy, he built a fashion empire that was unmistakably American. Cassini is perhaps best known for the hundreds of designs he created for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (see images 4-8), but his achievements as a collector, connoisseur, and quintessential twentieth-century man go far beyond Camelot. In 1913, Oleg Cassini was born in Paris to the Russian diplomat Count Alexander Loiewski and Countess Marguerite Cassini, a Russian aristocrat of Italian ancestry who also had an interesting link to America. The daughter of Count Arthur Cassini, Russian Ambassador to the United States during the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations, Marguerite dazzled turn-of-the-century Washington as her father’s official hostess and left her mark on the capital city. Stationed in Denmark when the Russian Revolution toppled the czar, Ambassador Cassini and family were exiled to Switzerland before settling in Florence, Italy, where young Oleg was raised. A true Renaissance man, he spoke Russian, French, and Danish before adding Italian and English; he studied medieval and modern European military history and costume and learned to draw; he learned horseback riding, fencing, and the art of chivalry; and, most importantly, he came to understand the struggles of the Russian titled class and other European aristocrats in the wake of the Russian Revolution and World War I. Countess Cassini started a successful fashion business in Florence, and soon the talented young Oleg was sent to Paris to sketch the latest collections for recreation in Italy. In Rome in his early 20s, Cassini created fashions for high society women and designed for a few films, which planted the seed for his move to Hollywood. The drive to reinvent himself brought Cassini to America in the 1930s; in his autobiography he describes arriving nearly penniless in mid-Depression New York City where his title as an exiled Russian Count meant even less than in war-devastated Europe. Down and out, Cassini struggled for employment, having sketching skills but no knowledge of the wholesale trade required for survival in Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue fashion district. However, he excelled at making connections, and Cassini slowly entered New York society. He was soon joined by younger brother Igor (who had studied in America and travelled with the young Emilio Pucci) and his parents, the once-dazzling Countess and his father, the displaced diplomat still loyal to Russia. The family settled in Washington, D.C., and Igor worked his way up the Hearst newspaper chain to become the famous society columnist Cholly Knickerbocker. In New York, Oleg Cassini married the troubled socialite Merry Fahrney (who would go on to marry eight times), but the marriage ended in scandal for Oleg, and he decided to follow his original intention and head for Hollywood. Despite initial difficulties, Cassini gained access to Hollywood’s elite (partially through his skills on the tennis court), and was soon hired as a designer at Paramount Pictures alongside the redoubtable Edith Head. In her 1941 film debut I Wanted Wings, Veronica Lake wore a memorable Cassini design. That same year, Cassini met and married the newest young Hollywood star on the scene, the beautiful 20th Century Fox–talent Gene Tierney. With the outbreak of World War II, Cassini enlisted in the Coast Guard but was transferred to the U.S. Army Cavalry which allowed officers of foreign birth. He attended basic training at Fort Riley, Kansas, and the horsemanship he learned as a boy served him greatly. He attended Officer Candidate School and reached the rank of First Lieutenant (he also became an American citizen at this time, losing his title of Count). Cassini spent several years posted at Fort Riley, where Tierney joined him before he landed a convenient military post in Hollywood. As Tierney’s career thrived (she played the title role in Otto Preminger’s Laura in 1944), she was able to assert her influence over 20th Century Fox’s head Daryl Zanuck, who hired Cassini as designer for Tierney on her 1946 film The Razor’s Edge, which proved to be a brilliant showcase for his talents. The pair separated the same year and, again seeking reinvention, Cassini re-established himself in New York City as a fashion designer. By 1950, the Oleg Cassini label was born. Combining his knowledge of Old World and modern Europe, Hollywood, the tennis courts of Palm Beach and Newport, and of course, New York City, Oleg Cassini invented a new brand of fashion that was distinctly American and of its moment. For his first collection, Cassini took to the stage, narrating the looks and imbuing the scene with his personality, unusual in an industry where the designers typically remained backstage and the models were called by number over a PA. The first collection was a smash — the president of Lord & Taylor devoted all of their storefront windows to his designs — and by 1955 sales had reached $5,000,000. Oleg Cassini’s career had turned a very positive corner. Cassini spent the early 1950s traversing the country, personally selling his collections to department stores in the interior, something his predecessors had never done, and moving between the Hollywood and New York scenes. Cassini’s brother Igor coined the term “the Jet Set” for this generation that constantly flew from New York to Los Angeles (then a ten-hour flight), Las Vegas, Paris, Rome, and the Riviera. In 1954, Cassini set out to woo Grace Kelly and sent her roses every day. The two were briefly engaged before her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco. In December 1960, Cassini’s career-defining opportunity came when he was chosen by Jacqueline Kennedy to design her fashions for the White House. Cassini had long known Joe Kennedy and his war-hero son John, and had first met Jacqueline Bouvier before her marriage in the early 1950s. Invited by President-Elect Kennedy to meet Jacqueline at Georgetown Hospital (she had just given birth to son John Jr.) to present to her drawings of potential dresses and First Lady looks, Cassini worked furiously to prepare a new line for the First Lady. Mrs. Kennedy had always had her clothes made by the top French couturiers of the day, but for the White House she wanted an American designer. Cassini wrote in his autobiography that he told the First Lady: “‘You have an opportunity here,’ I said, ‘for an American Versailles.’ She understood completely what I was trying to communicate; she began to talk excitedly about the need to create an entirely new atmosphere at the White House. She wanted it to become the social and intellectual capital of the nation” (Oleg Cassini, In My Own Fashion, 1987, p. 327). Mrs. Kennedy loved Cassini’s design for a gown to wear to the Inaugural Gala (she had already ordered a dress from Bergdorf’s for the Inaugural Ball), and Cassini was selected as the First Lady’s designer and was soon dubbed the “Secretary of Style.” From 1960 to 1963, Oleg Cassini would design over 300 items for Mrs. Kennedy, creating the “Jackie Look” that contributed not only to a fashion revolution but also the dawn of a new age. Cassini wrote that “Jackie played a very active role in the selection of her clothes. She loved brilliant colors — pistachio, hot pink, yellow, and white among others. Her sense of style was very precise; she would make editorial comments on the sketches I sent her. She always knew exactly what she wanted; her taste was excellent” (Oleg Cassini, In My Own Fashion, 1987, p. 334). After the Camelot years, Cassini’s business flourished and grew into a major industry; his name appeared on everything from couture to tennis-, sport-, and swimwear, car interiors, housewares, and perfume. He collected beautiful and rare artwork, arms and armor, and antique furniture, and lived the lifestyle projected by his image. From this period onward, Cassini also came to live in important homes. Of his Gothic Gramercy Park townhouse on Manhattan’s 19th Street he would write imaginatively, “I walked into the foyer and immediately fell in love. It was a place unlike any other in New York, a sixteenth-century Dutch house transported brick by brick from Europe by the Wells Fargo family in the early twentieth century. There was a vaulted, twenty-foot ceiling in the living room, leaded windows, elegantly carved wood paneling...

Sigurd Swane (1879-1973), Danish artist. Mixed media on paper. Landscape with trees. Expressive lines. Mid-20th century. Signed in pencil. In good condition with some paint loss and ...

Vintage Framed Pen Drawn Cartoon by "Ole Olsen" from comedians "Olsen & Johnson". $ This original pen-drawn cartoon depicts a crowd in front of a man on a ...

A fantastic gouache and ink drawing on paper, mounted on board by Vaclav Vytlacil, ca' 1945. Highly reflective of the style of the period, with influences of African art and NY Abstr...

Italian painting from the mid-20th century. Artwork oil on board depicting a girl with a calf of good pictorial quality. Impressionist style painting of good brightness adorned with ...

The cluster of knotty male nudes depicted in this high-energy drawing by Ben Messick illustrates his mastery of mural painting and animation. He worked as a sketch artist at the Disn...

Drawing of a sleeping nude man by Evelyne Luez, 20th century. Watercolour drawing of a sleeping nude man from the 20th century by Evelyne Luez. H: 51cm, W: 50cm, D: 0.2cm

Lovely and atmospheric, this drawing of a series of male nude figures at the swimming pool -- one diving, one readying to dive, others at the mirr...

Original Watercolor & Ink Cartoon "Caution Goafer Holes and Falling Rocks Ahead" signed DB Donte, 1958 "in original condition and frame" "frame needs to be replaced" "will look ama...

James Joseph Kearns (b. 1924) etching, signed at dated "1957." Depicts a man with hollow eyes and a despondent expression with a hand outstretched. Similar to many of his works, ther...

A striking gouache on paper by Robert Freiman, signed and dated 1957. Robert J Freiman (b. 1917 - d. 1991), deaf from birth, was born in New York City and attended the Lexington School for the Deaf. He studied art at the National Academy of Design, Pratt Institute, the Art Students League, the Parsons School of Design, and, in Paris, at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Freiman’s spectrum of styles evolved considerably over the course of his long career, ranging from early portraiture and realistic landscape to mixed-media works using watercolor, acrylic, and pen. He was a regular exhibitor at the Sidewalk Art...

An expressive mid-century modern mixed media color graphite drawing on paper depicting a two clowns by Michigan based artist Benjamin Glicker. Signed bottom right. Circa 1960s. Benja...

An original Maison Jansen pencil drawing depicting an architectural detail "Petit Panneau Empire" page 72 Stamped: Jansen, 9 Rue Royale Paris 8e

Exquisitely drawn in pencil and a feather, light ink wash, creating a pale, ghostly image that is refined and haunting, this full length male nude was accomplished by Cecil de Blaquiere Howard...

A brushed ink "Abstract Expressionist" drawing on tracing paper. Important modern Japanese artist, exhibited in MOMA's 1966: "The New Japanese Painting and...

A striking gouache on paper by Robert Freiman, signed and dated 1957. Robert J Freiman (b. 1917 - d. 1991), deaf from birth, was born in New York City and attended the Lexington Sch...

Loren Maciver (American 1909-1998) drawing of berries conte crayon on pastel paper. APF Matted and framed 13 5/8" x 12 1/2", sight size 8 3/4" x 7 3/4".

A gouache and ink "Abstract Expressionist" drawing. Important modern Japanese artist, exhibited in MOMA's 1966: "The New Japanese Painting and S...

The posters and prints may display signs of aging, such as paper discoloration, tears, folds, and other imperfections. These pieces were part of an art collection owned by a German ...

Ink on Paper fragment by José Luis Cuevas (Mexican, b.1934) laid on cream woven paper and framed. Inscribed "Yo Mutilado" and it is faintly signed and dated Oct 27 - 60 upper right. Silvan Sloane Gallery Los Angeles, CA label affixed verso with the titled "Auto Retrato" (Self Portrait). Sight is 14.5" x 9.5". With frame -18.5"by 24.5". José Luis Cuevas was a prominent member of the Generación de la Ruptura (Breakaway Generation), who first challenged the then dominant Mexican muralism movement. He remains a distinguished and controversial artist who is known for depicting the darker side of life and the debasement of the human society with often shocking images. He is also known for being an advocate against creating art purely for commercial gain. Provenance: this group of the work on paper by Cuevas is from a collection purchased in 60s from Silvan Simone Gallery, Los Angles, CA. The The Silvan Simone Gallery was founded in 1958 by Silvan Simone, an former co-owner of the Florentine Gallery in Pacific Palisades. Between 1959 and 1967, the gallery showed artists such as Lee Mullican, Gordon Wagner...

Painting, drawing of dancers from the mid-century time, circa 1950. It is signed H. Sjardi. The drawing has an original green bamboo frame. The pain...